Vlll PREFACE. 



considered a bold remark ; but I fear not to carry 

 out its truth in the following treatise, and to show 

 clearly (if my directions be followed) that the 

 former sport is mercy compared with the latter. 



Here are no broken legs or wings in half-shot 

 hares and birds to torment the sufferers no 

 lengthened course to agonise the pursued till 

 their hearts are broken a frequent occurrence in 

 the hunted hare. We might here allude also to 

 the patient fox, pursued, run down, and torn limb 

 from limb by its voracious enemies, yet never 

 heard to complain. As well again to the timid 

 hunted deer, whose piteous cries and tears " in 

 " vain bespeak her grief." Death, it is true, is the 

 fate of the captured fish, but not a lingering 

 death, unless unnecessarily made so by the mer- 

 ciless fisherman. This I have to prove, and this 

 is the object of the present little work its prin- 

 cipal object, though combined with some few hints 

 on the art of fishing, which may not have ap- 

 peared in former publications ; for, in truth, un- 

 less from recollection, not one direction has 

 been copied from any work on fishing : they are 

 all original. 



